Animation and comics – The News Desk

Earliest version of Mickey Mouse set to become public domain in 2024, along with Minnie, Tigger

14Dec

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Entertainment

Earliest version of Mickey Mouse set to become public domain in 2024, along with Minnie, Tigger

LOS ANGELES -- M-I-C-K-E-Y will soon belong to you and me.With several asterisks, qualification and caveats, Mickey Mouse in his earliest form will be the leader of the band of characters, films and books that will become public domain as the year turns to 2024.In a moment many close observers thought might never come, at least one version of the quintessential piece of intellectual property and perhaps the most iconic character in American pop culture will be free from Disney's copyright as his first screen release, the 1928 short “Steamboat Willie," featuring both Mickey and Minnie Mouse, becomes available for public use.“This is it. This is Mickey Mouse. This is exciting because it’s kind of symbolic," said Jennifer Jenkins, a professor of law and director of Duke’s Center for the Stud...

Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is No. 1 at the box office, a first for the Japanese anime master

10Dec

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Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is No. 1 at the box office, a first for the Japanese anime master

NEW YORK -- For the first time in Hayao Miyazaki's decades-spanning career, the 82-year-old Japanese anime master is No. 1 at the North American box office. Miyazaki's latest enchantment, “The Boy and the Heron,” debuted with $12.8 million, according to studio estimates.“The Boy and the Heron,” the long-awaited animated fantasy from the director of “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and other cherished anime classics, is only the third anime to ever top the box office in U.S. and Canadian theaters, and the first original anime to do so. The film, which is playing in both subtitled and dubbed versions, is also the first fully foreign production to land atop the domestic box office this year. Though Miyazaki's movies have often been enormous hits in Japan and Asia, they've traditionally ...

What to stream this week: Dolly Parton rocks out, ‘The Crown’ returns, ‘Rustin’ creates a march

13Nov

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Entertainment

What to stream this week: Dolly Parton rocks out, ‘The Crown’ returns, ‘Rustin’ creates a march

Colman Domingo's incredible performance in the civil rights biopic “Rustin” and Dolly Parton's rock music album are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.Also among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a series where Godzilla, King Kong and other monsters are real, the fifth Persona video game and return of “The Crown.”— A powerhouse performance by Colman Domingo fuels the Netflix drama “Rustin,” streaming Friday Nov. 17, about the civil rights pioneer and March on Washington architect Bayard Rustin. The film, directed by George C. Wolfe, chronicles the run-up to the indelible 1963 march where Rev. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. “Rustin,” the first narrative fea...

What to stream this week: Annette Bening, Jason Aldean, Awkwafina, NKOTB and ‘Blue Eye Samurai’

30Oct

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Entertainment

What to stream this week: Annette Bening, Jason Aldean, Awkwafina, NKOTB and ‘Blue Eye Samurai’

Awkwafina starring as a game-show-obsessed woman in “Quiz Lady” and the animated historical drama “Blue Eye Samurai” about a mixed-race, revenge-seeking female samurai in Japan are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near youAlso among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a studio album from Jason Aldean, a new Hulu series made from Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel “Black Cake” and Annette Bening portrays a real-life hero who swam the treacherous passage from Cuba to Key West in 2013.— It took Diana Nyad more than 30 years and five tries to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys. “Free Solo” filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad,” streaming Friday, Nov. 3 on Netflix, dramatizes her ...

Dolan’s sketch of the Sphere becomes reality as venue opens with U2 show in Las Vegas

29Sep

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Entertainment

Dolan’s sketch of the Sphere becomes reality as venue opens with U2 show in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- It started as a crude sketch — a circle with a stick person inside. Seven years later, that drawing has been made real: A $2.3 billion massive spherical venue standing 366 feet high and lighting up the Las Vegas skyline.The drawing was initially made by James Dolan, the executive chairman of Madison Square Garden and owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers. He and MSG Ventures CEO David Dibble were trying to create a plan to give the entertainment venue industry a facelift in Las Vegas.Both experimented with different shapes for the structure — such as a muffin, a box and even a pyramid - until Dolan drew a circle with a stick person inside on a notebook. At that moment, the Sphere was born. Now, Dolan’s vision will come into fruition when U2’s “UV Achtung Baby” residency ki...

‘Barbie’ joins $1 billion club, breaks another record for female directors

6Aug

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Entertainment

‘Barbie’ joins $1 billion club, breaks another record for female directors

Greta Gerwig should be feeling closer to fine these days. In just three weeks in theaters, “Barbie” is set to sail past $1 billion in global ticket sales, breaking a record for female directors that was previously held by Patty Jenkins, who helmed “Wonder Woman.”“Barbie,” which Gerwig directed and co-wrote, added another $53 million from 4,178 North American locations this weekend according to studio estimates on Sunday. The Margot Robbie-led and produced film has been comfortably seated in first place for three weeks and it’s hardly finished yet. Warner Bros. said the film will cross $1 billion before the end of the day.In modern box office history, just 53 movies have made over $1 billion, not accounting for inflation, and “Barbie” is now the biggest to be directed by one woman, supplan...

Editorial cartoonists’ firings point to steady decline of opinion pages in newspapers

17Jul

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Editorial cartoonists’ firings point to steady decline of opinion pages in newspapers

NEW YORK -- Even during a year of sobering economic news for media companies, the layoffs of three Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists on a single day hit like a gut punch.The firings of the cartoonists employed by the McClatchy newspaper chain last week were a stark reminder of how an influential art form is dying, part of a general trend away from opinion content in the struggling print industry.Losing their jobs were Jack Ohman of California's Sacramento Bee, also president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists; Joel Pett of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky and Kevin Siers of the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. Ohman and Siers were full-time staffers, while Pett worked on a free-lance contract. The firings on Tuesday were first reported by The Daily...